Anybody from the SF Bay Area?

[pibbs]

The reason I ask is because my band and I have aspirations to move there after college and just try to pursue music as much as possible. I was wondering what kind of neighborhoods we should look into moving to? We want to be able to practice in a 5-6 person home, and not be too far away from the city.. preferably in the east bay area, since I'll have a job near Pleasanton. Any advice??

[dubkitty]

I live near Santa Cruz; as such i'm totally useless for specific information on the East Bay. the major cautions i'd offer are that the Bay Area in general is one of the most expensive areas in the US to live, and that the urban areas close to the water in the East Bay tend to be pretty rough. if you end up looking in the suburban communities near Pleasanton, try to locate as close to the freeway as possible; most roads in the Bay Area are over capacity, and the fewer connecting roads you have to use the better. if you've got to choose in terms of places to live, boring is better than dangerous; you can drive to interesting more easily than you can buy a band's worth of new gear because dangerous broke in while you were out at Taco Bell.

have you lived in large cities/urban/suburban environments before? what are your expectations? do you want to be in a dense city environment, a suburban cul-de-sac, or perhaps up a country road in what folks in these parts jocularly refer to as a "semi-rural" area? any of those options are available within twenty-five or thirty miles of Pleasanton, and the answers to these questions determine where you should look for places to live. once you've decided those basic criteria, it's relatively simple to narrow down the possibilities.

[Mudfuzz]

I'm from the east bay originally but I moved away when I was 17 or 18 and that was a while ago... Um... I know that is by Walnut Creek which is nice but $$$ and you are about 15 miles from Oakland... Alamo is around there too but I can't remember anything about it... I lived in El Sobrante intill I was 9 and my dad worked in Pleasanton and commuted via the Dam Road... oh and stay out of Richmond it is a scary fucked up place. I live there for over a year, heard gun shots every day.

[pibbs]

Hmm, since we look to practice at home if possible, somewhere not too crowded where noise complaints wouldn't be an issue would be ideal. I think someone was telling us about rural areas to the east of Pleasanton (?), the thought seems kind of awesome, but probably too far away from possible venues we'd want to go to (in downtown SF, for example). I'm not TOO familiar with living in a very urban setting, I was also wondering how small-time bands find places to practice? Do they have to rent out spaces or do they just play and not care what the neighbors think? I'm totally down for the latter but it doesn't seem to sustainable in the long run

[plhogan]

If you want to live anywhere close to anything and play at a decent volume rent a practice space.

Are you moving from another part of Cali or out of state?

[pibbs]

From the opposite side of the country, man. We go to school in upstate NY

[bubstance]

.

[dubkitty]

boy, are you in for some surprises.

[pibbs]

boy, are you in for some surprises.

Yeah, I'm sure I lived in Seattle for 3 months last year, though, and that wasn't TOO big of a change. Although, I know California is different. I went there for the job interview last Fall and it just seems so... sprawly

[Mudfuzz]

boy, are you in for some surprises.

Yeah, I'm sure I lived in Seattle for 3 months last year, though, and that wasn't TOO big of a change. Although, I know California is different. I went there for the job interview last Fall and it just seems so... sprawly

Seattle is like a mini lamer SF [ I lived in Seattle for 9+ years]

One word though.. Traffic! Road rage was invented in the BA

Also Home of the word Hell'a... yeah apparently that was us... sorry about that...

Ok, lets get down to it for realz though, this is what you really want to know!
Univibe Music
Subway guitars
Black Market Music
The Starving Musician
Blue Note Music
Guitarorama
Thin Man String Company
Noe Valley Music

[pibbs]

boy, are you in for some surprises.

Yeah, I'm sure I lived in Seattle for 3 months last year, though, and that wasn't TOO big of a change. Although, I know California is different. I went there for the job interview last Fall and it just seems so... sprawly

Seattle is like a mini lamer SF [ I lived in Seattle for 9+ years]

One word though.. Traffic! Road rage was invented in the BA

NOT looking forward to the traffic...
Was Emerald City Guitars around when you were in Seattle? I would go there to gawk at the amazing gear all the time.

[Mudfuzz]

boy, are you in for some surprises.

Yeah, I'm sure I lived in Seattle for 3 months last year, though, and that wasn't TOO big of a change. Although, I know California is different. I went there for the job interview last Fall and it just seems so... sprawly

Seattle is like a mini lamer SF [ I lived in Seattle for 9+ years]

One word though.. Traffic! Road rage was invented in the BA

NOT looking forward to the traffic...
Was Emerald City Guitars around when you were in Seattle? I would go there to gawk at the amazing gear all the time.

Yeah, I only moved down here 3 years ago from there I think I've been there 2-3 times... I like The Trading Musician and Guitarville better though.

Who you really need in this thread is behndy but you'll have to drag him out of the pedal board thread... or just pick wis brain in the pedal board thread

[snipelfritz]

I don't know jack about the Bay Area, but when I lived in Minneapolis we got lucky and ended up in a house where you could barely hear us playing from outside when we played in the basement. We also lived next to an old lady who could hardly hear on one side and a dysfunctional couple who we could hear arguing all the time. This was a relatively urban area; I'm not sure exactly what constitutes urban, but it certainly wasn't a suburb. The houses were probably 10' away on one side(dysfunctional couple) and 30' on the other(old lady). Point is, if you're the only ones living in a house with a basement with concrete walls and a bit of buffer space, you should be fine. Just so long as you aren't playing at full volume.

Oh, and we were pretty sure the guy two houses down was a higher level drug dealer, but he was like some 30-something dude with a family. It was a weird area. Cool, but weird at times.

[pibbs]

I don't know jack about the Bay Area, but when I lived in Minneapolis we got lucky and ended up in a house where you could barely hear us playing from outside when we played in the basement. We also lived next to an old lady who could hardly hear on one side and a dysfunctional couple who we could hear arguing all the time. This was a relatively urban area; I'm not sure exactly what constitutes urban, but it certainly wasn't a suburb. The houses were probably 10' away on one side(dysfunctional couple) and 30' on the other(old lady). Point is, if you're the only ones living in a house with a basement with concrete walls and a bit of buffer space, you should be fine. Just so long as you aren't playing at full volume.

Oh, and we were pretty sure the guy two houses down was a higher level drug dealer, but he was like some 30-something dude with a family. It was a weird area. Cool, but weird at times.

That sounds awesome and super lucky, hah. That's kind of like our situation here at school. We're living off campus in this big house with a nice basement, and you can barely hear anything save for a few cymbal crashes outside when we practice. Although I hear there aren't many basements over out West

[dubkitty]

or many urban areas where the houses are thirty feet apart.